As the death toll among Russia’s political and economic elite rises, another top figure has mysteriously fallen to his death.
At the institute’s offices in the Russian capital this morning, Anatoly Gerashchenko, the former director of Moscow’s Aviation Institute (MAI), apparently stumbled and fell down a flight of steps.
According to the Moscow Aviation Institute’s press department, Anatoly Nikolaevich Gerashchenko, Doctor of Technical Sciences, professor, and advisor to the rector, died as a consequence of an accident on September 21, 2022.
The Moscow Aviation Institute crew sends their condolences to Anatoly Nikolaevich’s family and friends. For the MAI and the scientific and educational communities, this is a tremendous loss.
One of Russia’s top institutions for scientific study, MAI is in charge of the advancement of aircraft technology.
Gerashchenko spent his whole life working for the institution, first studying engineering at the university and then advancing through the ranks to oversee operations for eight years.
Less than two weeks before his very suspicious death, Vladimir Putin’s top Arctic resource development advisor ‘went overboard’ while sailing off the country’s Pacific coast.
Ivan Pechorin, 39, was the managing director of Putin’s Far East and Arctic Development Corporation and had just returned from Vladivostok, where the Kremlin leader had held a large gathering.
The two are the most recent in a long series of influential figures from Russia’s energy, technology, and banking industries who have recently perished in questionable circumstances. All of them were connected to the Kremlin.
According to the Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda, Pechorin went from the side of a boat in the seas of Russky Island near Cape Ignatiev.
After a day-long search, his corpse was discovered.
Two more deaths of Gazprom-linked executives were reported in elite homes near St
According to a statement released by the company, “Ivan’s death is an irreparable loss for friends and colleagues and a significant loss for the organisation.”
We send the family and friends our heartfelt sympathies.
Igor Nosov, the 43-year-old former CEO of the company, also passed away unexpectedly in February, purportedly following a stroke.
In light of sanctions and the extraordinary economic difficulties confronting Putin’s economy as a result of his conflict in Ukraine, development of the Arctic, a significant source of oil and gas for Russia, is considered crucial.
In the vast east of Russia, Pechorin was also in charge of the development of the aviation industry, a field that has been particularly hard hit by Western economic restraints.
However, his death is only the most recent in a string of mysterious tragedies that occurred before and during the conflict with Ukraine, in which a number of Russian power brokers met a tragic end.
Every death has been attributed to an accident or suicide by the authorities, but many people think that those who pose a danger to Putin’s authority are simply being eliminated from the game since they have access to vital information.
Oil billionaire Ravil Maganov, 67, died on September 1 after falling from a Moscow hospital’s sixth storey window.
Although this has not been independently verified, one source said that the head of Lukoil, the second-largest oil business in Russia, was “beaten” before being “thrown out of a window.”
Prior to now, Lukoil has expressed opposition to the conflict in Ukraine.
Maganov passed away immediately before Putin arrived to the prestigious Central Clinical Hospital to pay his respects to Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet leader to pass away there only days ago.
Yuri Voronov, 61, the director of a transport and logistics firm for a business affiliated with Gazprom, was discovered dead in his swimming pool in July. There were suspicions of foul play at the scene.
In upscale residences close to St. Petersburg, two further deaths of executives connected to Gazprom were recorded, fueling speculation that the killings may have been murders.
The day after the conflict in Ukraine broke out in February, Alexander Tyulakov, 61, a senior deputy general director level finance and security executive for Gazprom, was found by his boyfriend.
In his £500,000 property in the affluent Leninsky gated housing complex, his neck was in a noose, but several sources suggest his corpse had been severely bruised, raising the possibility that he was the target of tremendous pressure from criminals.
That occurred just three weeks after Leonid Shulman, 60, the chief of transport at Gazprom Invest, was discovered dead in a pool of blood on the toilet floor of the same gated community with several knife wounds.
The 43-year-old billionaire Alexander Subbotin was a senior management at the Kremlin-friendly energy company Lukoil when he was discovered dead in May.
One hypothesis holds that Subbotin, who also had a shipping business, suffered a heart attack after being poisoned by toad venom.
And in April, rich former Kremlin official Vladislav Avayev, 51, who was intimately associated with the Russian financial organisation Gazprombank, seemed to have committed suicide after murdering his wife Yelena, 47, and daughter, 13, was found dead.
Friends have refuted rumours that he was envious when his wife revealed she was carrying their driver’s child, and there are allegations that he had access to the Kremlin elite’s financial information.
Millionaire Sergey Protosenya, 55, was discovered hanging in Spain a few days later after murdering his wife Natalia, 53, and their teenage daughter Maria, apparently with an axe.
He was once Novatek’s vice chairman, a business that has ties to the Kremlin as well.
Similar to the case of Avayev, it has been hypothesised that this was a murder-suicide cover for an assassination.
In yet another instance that increased suspicions, a multi-millionaire in the mobile phone industry and his wife were discovered fatally murdered last week.
Yevgeny Palant, 47, and his wife Olga, 50, both of Ukrainian descent, were discovered by their 20-year-old daughter Polina with several knife wounds.
The couple’s closest friend vehemently refuted accusations made in an official briefing to the media that the lady committed suicide after Palant told her he was leaving her.